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Durbridge claims silver medal at Australian time trial championships

Former Australia road and time trial champion Luke Durbridge has claimed the silver medal at the Australian time trial championship in Buninyong.

Durbridge reached the intermediate checkpoint as the fastest rider, taking advantage of the tail wind to hold a three second advantage as he turned for the tougher return journey.

But at the end of the 40km course, it was BMC Racing’s Rohan Dennis who prevailed, finishing in a time of 50:59, 58seconds ahead of Durbridge.

“I actually surprised myself,” the West Australian said. “Rohan is still head and shoulders above me at the moment but it’s been a while since I have been up there so hopefully I can keep closing that gap and get closer to Rohan.”

“When you are close to Rohan, you are closer and closer to the world’s best.”

Durbridge, who also raced the Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic, wasn’t targeting today’s race but recognised the rare opportunity to test himself in a time trial.

“It definitely wasn’t the focus in January,” Durbridge said. “I just wanted to do my aerobic work in the off-season and then get ready for the classics.

“But you never get to do one day time trials so my next one-day time trial might be the world championships so every chance you can pull the jersey on and go full gas in the TT in a practice.”

ORICA-SCOTT teammate MIchael Hepburn finished in fourth position, two-minutes and four seconds down on Dennis, while Ben Dyball rounded out the podium (52:37).